Following day 4 finals at the 2016 FINA Short Course World Championships in Windsor, Canada, Team USA and Russia have maintained their top 2 spots in the medal count, while Japan has moved up into 3rd.

Tonight, Andrew made the transition from national age group and world junior records to a world champion by defeating 100m IM world record holder Vlad Morozov. Andrew pushed over the last 10-meters to emerge victorious in a time of 51.84.

Utah went on the road to win a tough pair of duals against a BYU squad that fought hard the whole way. The Ute women won 175-125, while the men triumped 172-128.

Nick Soedel had a great meet for the men, dipping under 20 in the 50 free and under 44 in the 100. He also swam on two winning relays, bringing the 200 medley from behind to win with a 19.2 split. The Utah women won despite dropping both relays, getting big diving wins from Kersten Merry and dominating the breaststroking events.

Soedel went 19.91 to win the 50, swimming all alone out front most of the way. The next closest time was just a 20.73. After the short 3-meter diving break, Soedel came back to go 43.90 to win the 100 free by nearly two and a half seconds.

Bence Kiraly also won two events handily. He went 9:43.40 for the 1000 free victory and 3:56.64 in the 400 IM. The third member of Utah’s Big Three, Kristian Kron, finished second in that event, and also won the 200 back in 1:48.06. He did drop the 100 back, though, to BYU’s Jake Taylor, who went 48.94.

Chad Sorenson was the biggest contibutor for BYU, winning the 100 breast in a 57.60-57.86 touchout over Karson Applin of Utah and taking the 200 breast in 2:06.83. BYU also swept the butterfly races with Rainer Ng (who won the 200 fly over Kiraly) and Jordan Fletcher (100 fly).

Utah swept the relays on the men’s side, dipping below 3 minutes in the 400 free relay to close the night.

Other Utah winners were Jonas Holmstroem in the 200 free, Andy Cunningham in the 500 free and divers Jake Crayne (3-meter) and Josiah Purss (1-meter).

The Utah women were unmatched in both breaststroke races. Stina Colleau won the 100 in 1:04.67, touching out teammate Brianna Francis while fellow Ute Nicole Ligeza took third. In the 200, Francis struck back for a 2:19.37 win with Colleau second and Ligeza third.

Guiliana Gigliotti was another big winner for the Utes, going 23.81 to win the 50 free and 52.45 for the 100 free win. Kersten Merry won both diving events, scoring 299.93 on 1-meter and nipping teammate Jasmine Matkovic on 3-meter by just .07 points.

BYU won a couple of tight races to try to reel the meet back in late – Kim Doroghian touched out Petra Soininen 56.24 to 56.36 in the 100 fly after Soininen won the 200 fly earlier. And Allie Dodds beat Amanda Barrett to win the 400 IM near the end. In addition, BYU’s Hailey Campbell was on fire in the backstrokes, winning both over Barrett and going 56.32 in the 100 and 2:02.44 in the 200.

Brigham Young also swept the relays, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Utah, which got a pair of wins from Sami Zuch (200 free, 500 free) as well as a 1000 free win from Selin Ozturk.

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson just can’t stay away from the pool. A competitive career sixteen years and running wasn’t enough for this native Minnesotan, who continues to get his daily chlorine fix. A lifelong lover of writing, Jared now combines the two passions as Senior Reporter for SwimSwam.com, covering swimming at every …